You know the feeling you get when you open a box and the puzzle pieces are already assembled into the perfect final puzzle? You don’t? Me either. Part of the beauty and the challenge of creating a puzzle is to look at all the pieces and figure out which pieces go where. Which parts are the frame? What about the basket? The butterfly? The giant hulking monster with crazy eyes and pointy teeth? Maybe we have two puzzles here that got mixed together.

Writing can be the same way.

So many people who have a personal story to tell find it therapeutic to write down snippets of their story as they think of them. Writing is a beautiful way to heal, and I recommend trying this approach.

The problem they run into, though, is that they end up with a pile of puzzle pieces with no idea what the final image should be. Is it the butterfly with the basket and flowers and a rainbow? Or is it the monster racing through the city for a bite to eat?

All those puzzle pieces can end up frustrating the writer. They may leave them as is, stuck in the journal, on the shelf, gathering dust. But if you want to share the story as part of your business, I doubt you’ll invite potential clients over and expect them to sift through to make sense of it all.

Think of the writing as a mosaic. You have all the pieces for a picture. YOU get to decide what the picture is.

It may seem circuitous, but once you have a significant amount of writing to work with, you really can jump back to square one and start planning.

1. Decide who you want to read the final book. That will dictate what stories are appropriate for that audience. If you have stories written that aren’t for that audience, put them aside. Your time wasn’t wasted. It was therapeutic. You needed to get that writing out. Plus, you might use it for another book later.
2. Determine what you want them to get out of the book. Look at the remaining stories, and see if they can be arranged to lead a reader to that goal. If they don’t work with the goal, set those aside, too. Remember, therapeutic, potential for another book later. No time lost.
3. Start arranging the stories into chapters so you can lead a reader through a process, to meet checkpoints on a journey, to understand the road they have to travel, or whatever you have set up as the method for organization.
4. Though it’s great to have a book full of stories for your potential clients, you still have to explain and analyze. The reader needs to be guided on the journey. They need to know what lessons they should learn from your stories or what you are demonstrating to them. They need to know what the stories taught you and how it will impact their lives or their businesses. You can’t just throw stories at them without giving some context.
5. Frame it. Include a chapter at the beginning about why you wanted to compile those stories and what is driving you to work with people just like your ideal client. This makes for a great way to show the reader that you totally get them. For the final chapter, include a call to action. Make sure the reader knows what the next steps are and how they can work with you (because now they know that you can really solve all their problems easier than if they attempt to struggle through all the steps on their own).

Piecing the puzzle together will help you create a beautiful mosaic that you can be proud of AND that you can use as a great marketing tool for your business.